Ryder Cup 2014: Keegan Bradley - I was never as nervous as at Medinah

It is not just the wild, staring eyes and those primeval convulsions
masquerading as fist-pumps which make it so tempting to label Keegan Bradley
the American Ian Poulter. It is the fulfilment of the little boy’s fantasy,
as well.

Fighting for glory: Keegan Bradley's passion and competitive spirit lit up the last Ryder CupPhoto: AFP

Poulter has never made any secret of the fact that his failed ambition to become an Arsenal footballer makes him come over all Tony Adams in the Ryder Cup team room. Bradley’s dream is similarly unrequited, although this fanatic from New England would have been happy to play for either the Patriots... or the Bruins... or the Red Sox.

“I’ve always loved sports and, despite being a professional sportsman, I feel I’ve missed out on the locker-room team atmosphere – that’s a bummer,” Bradley said. “As golfers we’re such individuals all the time and the Ryder Cup is the closest we ever get.

“It’s fun to root for someone, to have a partner, to be on their team and want them to make a putt. It does funny things to you. Put it this way, the most nervous I have ever been is teeing it up in the Ryder Cup. The second most nervous I’ve been is throwing the first pitch at Fenway Park.”

Never mind the USPGA of 2011, and winning the first major he ever teed it up in, it was the biggest ball parks which got to Bradley.

But then, nerves affect people, and indeed sports people, in different ways. Some are forced to don an expression so aghast they look as if the Devil has crossed their grave. Bradley, like Poulter, appears to be possessed. Even now, the Medinah adrenalin is to prone to flow.

“That week in Chicago was the most fun I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget it,” he said. “I think back to it all the time, at least once a day. Not just about losing, but about specific moments and the time with the team and hopefully I’d get to relive that again. After that experience, I can’t imagine missing it.”

Phil Mickelson, one must assume, could not imagine missing Bradley. Talk about a young pup teaching the old dog new tricks. The apprentice had the spell to conjure the magic out of the sorcerer.

“Keegan’s energy is just so positive, it’s so uplifting,” Mickelson said. “I felt young again. I’d say to him a couple times out there, ‘hey, I need a little pep talk’, and then he’d just give me something that would get me boosted right up. It was so much fun.”

Yes, Mickelson was reborn to the Ryder Cup last September and America’s only regret must be that the partnership who won their first three games were “rested” for the fourth session, having just inflicted a 7&6 humiliation on Luke Donald and Lee Westwood in their beloved foursomes. Another win for Mickelson and Bradley on the Saturday afternoon and there would have been no Miracle of Medinah on the Sunday.

But Mickelson insisted that the US stuck to their gameplan, Davis Love did not grasp the moment to overrule him and Europe were allowed to claw at the wreckage to locate a lifeline. Fair enough, Mickelson is 43 and suffers from arthritis. For his part, Bradley seemed able to scale the Eiger never mind play another fourball.

Surely it was daft to bench him? In the weeks following, Bradley and Mickelson would talk on the phone about the match and although neither would admit it, that decision would have been on their agenda. Bradley has stayed loyal to the script.

“Maybe we should have played but it wasn’t Captain Love’s fault,” he said. “We could have gone out there and got murdered; we also could have won. But at the time it was the right decision.”

Bradley prefers to point the spotlight on himself and his inability to win his singles. True, he was playing the world No 1, and true, he was distracted in the minutes before the game with thoughts over whether Rory McIlroy would make the tee-time, or if Bradley would be handed the point by default.

The competitor in him craved the challenge and perhaps in those moments of uncertainty, as the late-rising McIlroy was hurtled to Medinah by a police officer, the killing instinct was dulled somewhat as he willed his opponent to arrive. Bradley is not about to fall behind any such excuse, however.

“I didn’t want the kid disqualified - I was happy he showed up,” he said. “I wish he had played a little worse than he did, mind you. He was awesome. I wasn’t.”

If there was some bemusement on Bradley’s behalf at McIlroy’s plight then that is understandable. On his college golf team, at St John’s in Queens, New York, his nickname was “Grandpa” because he was a stickler for getting to bed on time the night before a match. Yet in his work weeks, Bradley is something of a grafter, as he highlighted before this interview.

Having arranged to meet straight after his pro-am at the BMW Championship in Chicago, Bradley briskly walked off the 18th directly to the practice ground. Despite having spent - some pros would say “endured” - a five-hour-plus round in the company of enthusiastic amateurs, Bradley felt he needed more golf.

So there he stood for two more hours, without having lunch, bashing balls, trying to correct the imperceptible faults in a swing that has established him as one of the best drivers and highest quality

ball-strikers on tour. A downpour arrived and then another but Bradley stayed put, with his trusty caddie Steve 'Pepsi' Hale, hitting through the rain. They were the only pair out there, with everyone else taking shelter. Eventually, he relented.

“Sorry,” he said. “My head was all over the place.” Bradley is evidently an intense young man, but his charm is disarming. The 27-year-old is entertaining to watch, what with that manic countenance, the frenzied bounce in his step and that “stink eye” he gives when he is lining up the putt, scowling at the hole with his head half-turned like a cat daring the mouse to make its escape. It is easy to see why so many fans and, indeed, so many of his peers are drawn to him.

Bradley lives on the South Florida coast in a huge house which he shares with his college friends, or “my degenerate friends”, as he calls them. He will meet up with his neighbours – Luke Donald, often, and occasionally Lee Westwood – for a game. The banter flies as quickly as the bets, although interestingly all that was put on ice during the heat of the Ryder Cup.

“That’s a week where you don’t do the texting or tweeting,” he said. “You know, G-Mac, Westy, Luke... I love those guys. But that week is different, you put all that to one side; they’re on the other team, you want to beat them. That’s it. But come the last putt falling, we’ll hang again.”

They’ll hang and they’ll trash talk. In the months after Medinah, Bradley was the target for some social network ribbing from a few of the European players. McIlroy was particularly fast to respond when Bradley tweeted he could not wait for 2014. “You want to get beaten again already?” McIlroy tweeted.

“I thought that was awesome,” Bradley told Sports Illustrated. “I saw him two days later at the Bear’s Club [in West Palm] and went up to him and said, real serious, ’I hear you want a piece of me.’ He was like, ‘Uh, well, gee, uh... .’

“Finally I couldn’t keep from smiling, and then he relaxed because he knew I was joking. I love Rory and I would love to be coming down the stretch with him. He’s great for the game. I think Rory and I are going to be playing against each other for a long time. I look forward to it.”

What Bradley would give for a Ryder rematch with McIlroy at Gleneagles. He wishes to have everything the Europeans can throw at him. “If I make it on to the team, it will be my first away match, as this Presidents Cup is at home [in Ohio],” he said. “I imagine it will be loud and a little bit hostile. I think I’d enjoy it.” Poulter would approve.